Explainer: How ED won the long-drawn legal battle in UK to bring Nirav Modi back
The ED and CBI have been fighting a tough battle to ensure Nirav Modi returns to India to face the law of the land. While ruling in favour of his extradition, a UK court relied heavily on the evidence provided by the two agencies.
Munish Chandra Pandey
New Delhi
March 2, 2021
UPDATED: March 2, 2021 23:22 IST
A UK court has ruled that fugitive businessman Nirav Modi, currently lodged in a London prison, can be extradited to India. (File photo)
"India's central investigative agencies had a major success in the Nirav Modi case when the Westminster Court in the UK cleared the first legal hurdle for the fugitive diamantaire's extradition on February 25.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have been fighting a tough battle to ensure Nirav Modi returns to India to face the law of the land.
Nirav Modi is wanted in India on charges of fraud and money laundering in the $2-billion Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case.
He is facing two sets of criminal proceedings, one by the CBI and the other by the ED.
The CBI case relates to a large-scale fraud upon PNB through the fraudulent obtaining of letters of undertaking (LoUs) or loan agreements. The ED case pertains to laundering of the proceeds of that fraud.
Apart from these, Nirav Modi also faces two additional charges of "causing the disappearance of evidence" and intimidating witnesses or "criminal intimidation to cause death", which were added to the CBI case.
The UK Court, while delivering its judgement to extradite Nirav Modi, heavily relied on the evidence submitted by the ED. This included cases of money laundering, destruction of evidence and illegal businesses conducted by Nirav Modi through shell companies.
Nirav Modi being driven away from Westminster Magistrates Court in London on May 30, 2019 in a prison van after a hearing in his extradition case. (Photo: AFP)
While the ED was fighting the battle in the UK to bring Nirav Modi back to India, it also ensured that his assets and properties, his firms and his other associates, were identified, attached and seized to recover the illegal money he had generated by defrauding the Punjab National Bank (PNB).
The financial probe agency not only detected and attached Nirav Modi's properties in India but also those worth several hundred crores abroad.
The ED began its investigation on February 14, 2018 in the Punjab National Bank case, against Nirav Modi and other accused.
On July 27, 2018, India submitted a request to extradite Nirav Modi from the UK.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), representing India and the central investigative agencies, was given crucial evidence and documents against Nirav Modi.
ED's Joint Director Satyabrata Kumar also travelled to the UK for better coordination and communication with the CPS and to ensure that Nirav Modi is brought back to India.
Proof of Nirav Modi threatening to kill witness, destroy evidence
One of the most crucial pieces of evidence against Nirav Modi was his threat to kill Ashish Lad -- a witness in the case.
In its third supplementary request to the UK court, the ED had submitted that there was a conspiracy to prevent the course of justice and threats were being issued to kill Ashish Lad.
Based on this evidence, the UK court in its order said, "Nirav Modi, you are accused in a category 2 territory of the commission of offences constituted by conduct which had occurred within the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom."
The court also said that between September 2008 and June 2018, Nirav Modi, along with others, "conspired together, committed acts tending and intended to prevent the course of justice by causing evidence relevant to a criminal investigation into a fraud committed upon the Punjab National Bank, to be removed from the premises of Bank's Brady House Branch, Mumbai and concealing in the law firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas with the intention of preventing that evidence being discovered by investigators".
The court also said that Nirav Modi was "involved in interfering with witnesses relevant to the investigation by arranging for them to travel to, and remain in, Cairo, Egypt, where they were pressured to sign false statements".
ED evidence stating destruction of a server in Dubai, the mobile phones and electronic devices that were taken away from the witnesses in Dubai and Hong Kong and their destruction, was also relied upon by the UK court. ... "
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